For one Easton family, it’s a special Independence Day

Rosa Lashkari has lived in Easton for almost 14 years but this week she will celebrate her first official Independence Day. Lashkari, along with her husband Majid, who goes by “Mark,” became U.S. Citizens on April 28.

By Erin Shannon

The Taunton Daily Gazette, Taunton, MA

By Erin Shannon

Posted Jul. 4, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jul 4, 2013 at 4:01 AM

By Erin Shannon

Posted Jul. 4, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jul 4, 2013 at 4:01 AM

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Rosa Lashkari has lived in Easton for almost 14 years, but this week she will celebrate her first official Independ- ence Day.

Lashkari, along with her husband, Majid, who goes by Mark, became U.S. citizens on April 28.

“It’s something that you can say, ‘Wow,’” said Lashkari. “This is the first wonderful Fourth of July that I can say, ‘Yay. I’m American.’ I think the U.S. is the best country in the world.”

Lashkari, now 43, left Tehran, Iran, and arrived in Boston at Logan Airport with her husband and two young sons the night before Thanksgiving 1999.

The challenges started on their first night, when the family was held in customs for hours while the agents thoroughly examined a work visa for Mark, an architect.

With the little money they had, they bought a small, old home in Easton.

They spoke no English beyond yes and no.

Rosa’s brother, a citizen of Germany, offered her some advice – learn the language.

So Rosa went to the Easton Public Library and asked for help.

“With my broken English, I asked (the librarian) to help me learn,” said Lashkari. “I didn’t know where to start.”

The librarian pulled out audiotapes that she listened to from sun up to sun down on a Walkman. They told her to watch children’s cartoons, so she did. Still after 13 years, Rosa leaves the television on all day, listening and hoping to improve her English.

“If you don’t have children it’s easier, but as a family it’s so hard,” Rosa said of the process of moving to a new country. “When you come here everything is new and you’re confused and it’s hard.”

The Lashkaris stayed in Easton. Mark continued working as an architect. Rosa opened the Touch of Design dress shop in the Roche Bros. Plaza in 2003. Her sons went to Easton public schools and eventually to college.

Son Reza, 23, recently graduated from Bridgewater State University, and Ari, 19, just got four A’s and a B-plus at Bryant University.

“I brag about him,” said Rosa. “Maybe for some families it’s nothing, but when you come here it’s so hard.”

Rosa calls the road that led her to become a U.S. citizen “fate.”

“I’m so thankful,” said Rosa. “People help each other. I feel I’m so lucky. People accept you here."

Rosa, who sat among the dozens of prom and wedding dresses she has altered or created by hand, talked about the strife in Iran.

She lived in Tehran during war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s. She worked in a hospital when amputees came in screaming for the pain to stop.

Page 2 of 2 - “You couldn’t sleep because you had to go and hide under a door arch or something every two hours when they would bomb,” said Rosa.

It is the memories of the struggles in her home country that makes her so thankful for the American soldiers overseas, she said.

She remembered feeling overwhelmed with respect for a young Easton man who coached one of her sons in youth sports after he served in Afghanistan.

“I wanted to shake his hand and I said, ‘I’m so thankful you came back,’” said Rosa. “I have a lot of respect for what they do putting their lives in others’ hands.”

This year was special for the Lashkaris. Reza graduated from college, Rosa’s business turned 10, they became citizens, and they voted for the first time.

“It was worth it,” said Rosa.

“Young people need to appreciate what they have and how lucky they are to be born in the best country in the world.”